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Australian
Scottish
Heritage
Scottish
Heritage
History of the Telegraph in Northern territories
When the first Europeans settled in Australia,mail took over three months to travel each way by sailing ship.This
handicapped government,business and commercial ventures,as well as private mail.
The British Government urged Australia to build an OTL for morse code messages to the north coast of Australia,to
meet an underwater cable it would construct from Java.Messages could then be relayed within hours and Australia would be in touch with the rest of the world.
Each state sought to build the line to increase business and for political importance.
The SA Government offered a reward to whomever transversed the unknown continent to see whether the country was
suitable to build a OTL nearly 3000km long,from Adelaide to the north coast.Then ,there was no settlement in Darwin.
In 1862,on his third attempt,a Scotsman,John McDouall Stuart,with a small party of men and horses,successfully
reached the north coast,west of the present Darwin,at Chambers Bay,which he named.
On his return to Adelaide,he said it would be feasible to build a OTL,but his route needed to be altered in a few places
to be navigable for stock and long wagons needed for the line construction.
During the following eight years there was little progress.The Government thought Stuart's experdition would trigger off settlement further north ,which would make the construction of the line easier,but the opposite happened.Due to
drought in the north of SA,few people ventured further afield.However,when the OTL was built,explorers and pioneers
followed the track as their life-line,and settlement started in various forms.
The contract between the SA Government and the British-Australian Telegraph Company stipulated that the OTL
would be completed by 1 january 1872,as would the underwater cable linking Java to Darwin.
SA's Superintendent of Telegraphs,Charles Todd (later knighted for his work on the OTL) was the instigater and
organiser of the mammoth task.He divided the distance into three main sections.The southern section extended from
Port Augusta to the Treuer River (near the present Oodnadatta),the central section from there to the present Tennant
Creek,and the northern section on to the present Darwin.
Todd sent a skilled bushman,John Ross ahead with a small party of men to survey the route for the construction teams.
Ross had to find a suitable track and water for the construction teams,timber for the 36,000 telegraph poles and land
suitable to build 11 repeater stations roughly 250km apart,the distance morse code could be relayed.
E.M.(Ned)Bagot obtained the contract for the southern section.The central section,expected to be the most difficult
because of the distance from Port Augusta,was divided into five sub-sections,each under the control of a Government
Surveyor.Surveyor R.R.Knuckey was in charge of sub-section A;Gilbert McMinn,sub-section B;William Whitfield Mills
sub-section C; A.T.Woods,sub-section D and E.W.Harvey,sub-section E. C.Musgrave was deputy overseer of
sub-section B.
The northern section contract was let to two men,Joseph Darwent and William Dalwood.
The southern and central sections were finished on time,despite hardships and long distances.The cable between
Java and Darwin was also completed on time.However,the northern section section proved hardest because of
torrential rains in the wet season.
Tracks became bogs and rivers,deep,wide,swirling floods.Animals floundered and drowned.In spite of hardship and
sickness,the men continued work and built rafts to cross flooded areas.By the end of January 1871,construction parties
had reached the Katherine River.There,conditions became worse,and the Government overseer cancelled the contract
about 28km further south at the King River.With 630km still to be completed,the Government took over construction
and Todd told the leaders of the central section to continue northward.
In April the weather cleared,which enabled the northern teams of 300 men,to resume work.Progress was good.
However,the cable had been completed from Java to Darwin,and the cable company pressed Australia for
compensation for failure to keep the contract date.
To bridge the fast diminishing gap between sections of the line,the Government contracted John Lewis to run a pony
express between Tennant Creek and Daly Waters.Lewis,his brother Jim,and a small party of men were travelling
from Adelaide to the Cobourg Penisula,north-east of Darwin,to start a horse breeding station,taking horses with
them.
For a short time,messages from overseas were relayed to Adelaide through the completed sections of the OTL and
the pony express.
On June 24th the SA Government had a lucky break!The cable broke between Java and Darwin and no more was
heard of compensation.
With teams working from both ends,helped by messages relayed by the pony express,the distance narrowed quickly.
Government engineer,Robert Patterson,in charge of the northern section,joined the two ends of the wires at Frew Ponds,
north of Newcastle Waters on 22nd August 1872.
The OTL was complete!Messages could be relayed by morse code accross Australia.
Todd was at Central Mount Stuart on his journey back to Adelaide and recieved messages of congratulations from
all over Australia-from governments,foreign consuls and organisations that would benefit from the telegraph.
In Adelaide,the news was greeted with peals of bells in daylight and fireworks at night.
The underwater cable to Java was repaired by 21st October and then Australia was in communication with the whole
world.
Adelaide declared a public holliday on 15th November and members of the construction parties were entertained at
a banquet.
Stuart,Todd,and people who worked on the OTL,followed by those in their wake-explorers,miners,blacksmiths,
nurses,politicians,pastoralists,ministers and people who are still alive -have had their names commemorated on many
street names that tell the history of Alice Springs.
John Ross
John Ross -Leader of the survey party to find the OTL route,explorer and station manager.
John Ross features in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
The John Ross Memorial,Wills Terrace,commemorates John Ross,members of the exploration party and all pioneers
of CA from 1870-1920.Names of many people after whom streets are named ,feature on the plaque in the horseshoe
shaped structure.
John Ross,born in Fife,Scotland,came to Australia aged 20 years old.He became a noted drover and station manager
and explored north to Mount Humphries on the Finke River.
Sir Charles Todd appointed Ross to lead a small party to survey the route for the OTL from The Peake,SA,2000km
north to the Roper River,to meet the Government overseer of the Northern Section.Todd's requirements for the route feature in the introduction.
Ross's original survey party consisted of William Harvey,surveyor;Alfred Giles,William Hearne and Tom Crispe left
the party south of the MacDonnell Ranges and Bob Abrahams and Gregory joined the party.This left Ross with four
experienced bushmen but no surveyor.His meagre survey equipment was a traced copy of Stuart's map,a prismatic
compass,a protractor and a carpenter's lead pencil.He had no instruments to determine lattitude or longtitude.
Ross was unable to find a suitable pass through the MacDonnells for the OTL teams in the time alloted,so this was
left to the surveyors.
After an exhausting expedition,Ross and party reached the Roper River,though further east than arranged.Through
his inadequate instruments,he made a slight navigational error,which fortunately shortened the route.Ross mistook a
creek later named the Birdum Creek,for the Strangways River and met the northern teams later and in a different
place than planned.
Ross and party continued north to Port Darwin,where Ross.ill with scurvy,reluctantly had to return to Adelaide by ship,
instead of overland.
Later Ross made further explorations in the outback,then lived in Norwood,SA with his daughter-in-law.
Almost blind,deaf and destitute,Ross died in 1903.
Alexander Ross,Ross's eldest son,was a member of the Ernest Giles and W.H.Tietkens successful expedition
from Beltana,SA to Perth,WA.
Following a Ross family custom,the eldest son of each generation is named Alexander.
Contributed by Michele Francis, John Ross was Michelle's Great Great Grandfather
When the first Europeans settled in Australia,mail took over three months to travel each way by sailing ship.This
handicapped government,business and commercial ventures,as well as private mail.
The British Government urged Australia to build an OTL for morse code messages to the north coast of Australia,to
meet an underwater cable it would construct from Java.Messages could then be relayed within hours and Australia would be in touch with the rest of the world.
Each state sought to build the line to increase business and for political importance.
The SA Government offered a reward to whomever transversed the unknown continent to see whether the country was
suitable to build a OTL nearly 3000km long,from Adelaide to the north coast.Then ,there was no settlement in Darwin.
In 1862,on his third attempt,a Scotsman,John McDouall Stuart,with a small party of men and horses,successfully
reached the north coast,west of the present Darwin,at Chambers Bay,which he named.
On his return to Adelaide,he said it would be feasible to build a OTL,but his route needed to be altered in a few places
to be navigable for stock and long wagons needed for the line construction.
During the following eight years there was little progress.The Government thought Stuart's experdition would trigger off settlement further north ,which would make the construction of the line easier,but the opposite happened.Due to
drought in the north of SA,few people ventured further afield.However,when the OTL was built,explorers and pioneers
followed the track as their life-line,and settlement started in various forms.
The contract between the SA Government and the British-Australian Telegraph Company stipulated that the OTL
would be completed by 1 january 1872,as would the underwater cable linking Java to Darwin.
SA's Superintendent of Telegraphs,Charles Todd (later knighted for his work on the OTL) was the instigater and
organiser of the mammoth task.He divided the distance into three main sections.The southern section extended from
Port Augusta to the Treuer River (near the present Oodnadatta),the central section from there to the present Tennant
Creek,and the northern section on to the present Darwin.
Todd sent a skilled bushman,John Ross ahead with a small party of men to survey the route for the construction teams.
Ross had to find a suitable track and water for the construction teams,timber for the 36,000 telegraph poles and land
suitable to build 11 repeater stations roughly 250km apart,the distance morse code could be relayed.
E.M.(Ned)Bagot obtained the contract for the southern section.The central section,expected to be the most difficult
because of the distance from Port Augusta,was divided into five sub-sections,each under the control of a Government
Surveyor.Surveyor R.R.Knuckey was in charge of sub-section A;Gilbert McMinn,sub-section B;William Whitfield Mills
sub-section C; A.T.Woods,sub-section D and E.W.Harvey,sub-section E. C.Musgrave was deputy overseer of
sub-section B.
The northern section contract was let to two men,Joseph Darwent and William Dalwood.
The southern and central sections were finished on time,despite hardships and long distances.The cable between
Java and Darwin was also completed on time.However,the northern section section proved hardest because of
torrential rains in the wet season.
Tracks became bogs and rivers,deep,wide,swirling floods.Animals floundered and drowned.In spite of hardship and
sickness,the men continued work and built rafts to cross flooded areas.By the end of January 1871,construction parties
had reached the Katherine River.There,conditions became worse,and the Government overseer cancelled the contract
about 28km further south at the King River.With 630km still to be completed,the Government took over construction
and Todd told the leaders of the central section to continue northward.
In April the weather cleared,which enabled the northern teams of 300 men,to resume work.Progress was good.
However,the cable had been completed from Java to Darwin,and the cable company pressed Australia for
compensation for failure to keep the contract date.
To bridge the fast diminishing gap between sections of the line,the Government contracted John Lewis to run a pony
express between Tennant Creek and Daly Waters.Lewis,his brother Jim,and a small party of men were travelling
from Adelaide to the Cobourg Penisula,north-east of Darwin,to start a horse breeding station,taking horses with
them.
For a short time,messages from overseas were relayed to Adelaide through the completed sections of the OTL and
the pony express.
On June 24th the SA Government had a lucky break!The cable broke between Java and Darwin and no more was
heard of compensation.
With teams working from both ends,helped by messages relayed by the pony express,the distance narrowed quickly.
Government engineer,Robert Patterson,in charge of the northern section,joined the two ends of the wires at Frew Ponds,
north of Newcastle Waters on 22nd August 1872.
The OTL was complete!Messages could be relayed by morse code accross Australia.
Todd was at Central Mount Stuart on his journey back to Adelaide and recieved messages of congratulations from
all over Australia-from governments,foreign consuls and organisations that would benefit from the telegraph.
In Adelaide,the news was greeted with peals of bells in daylight and fireworks at night.
The underwater cable to Java was repaired by 21st October and then Australia was in communication with the whole
world.
Adelaide declared a public holliday on 15th November and members of the construction parties were entertained at
a banquet.
Stuart,Todd,and people who worked on the OTL,followed by those in their wake-explorers,miners,blacksmiths,
nurses,politicians,pastoralists,ministers and people who are still alive -have had their names commemorated on many
street names that tell the history of Alice Springs.
John Ross
John Ross -Leader of the survey party to find the OTL route,explorer and station manager.
John Ross features in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
The John Ross Memorial,Wills Terrace,commemorates John Ross,members of the exploration party and all pioneers
of CA from 1870-1920.Names of many people after whom streets are named ,feature on the plaque in the horseshoe
shaped structure.
John Ross,born in Fife,Scotland,came to Australia aged 20 years old.He became a noted drover and station manager
and explored north to Mount Humphries on the Finke River.
Sir Charles Todd appointed Ross to lead a small party to survey the route for the OTL from The Peake,SA,2000km
north to the Roper River,to meet the Government overseer of the Northern Section.Todd's requirements for the route feature in the introduction.
Ross's original survey party consisted of William Harvey,surveyor;Alfred Giles,William Hearne and Tom Crispe left
the party south of the MacDonnell Ranges and Bob Abrahams and Gregory joined the party.This left Ross with four
experienced bushmen but no surveyor.His meagre survey equipment was a traced copy of Stuart's map,a prismatic
compass,a protractor and a carpenter's lead pencil.He had no instruments to determine lattitude or longtitude.
Ross was unable to find a suitable pass through the MacDonnells for the OTL teams in the time alloted,so this was
left to the surveyors.
After an exhausting expedition,Ross and party reached the Roper River,though further east than arranged.Through
his inadequate instruments,he made a slight navigational error,which fortunately shortened the route.Ross mistook a
creek later named the Birdum Creek,for the Strangways River and met the northern teams later and in a different
place than planned.
Ross and party continued north to Port Darwin,where Ross.ill with scurvy,reluctantly had to return to Adelaide by ship,
instead of overland.
Later Ross made further explorations in the outback,then lived in Norwood,SA with his daughter-in-law.
Almost blind,deaf and destitute,Ross died in 1903.
Alexander Ross,Ross's eldest son,was a member of the Ernest Giles and W.H.Tietkens successful expedition
from Beltana,SA to Perth,WA.
Following a Ross family custom,the eldest son of each generation is named Alexander.
Contributed by Michele Francis, John Ross was Michelle's Great Great Grandfather
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